Buttigieg urges big funds for transportation infrastructure
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, was headed down a smooth path to quick confirmation, pledging to senators Thursday to work with them to carry out the administration’s ambitious agenda to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.
A Senate committee vote on his nomination could come next week.
Buttigieg pointed to a “generational opportunity” to create new jobs, fight economic inequality and stem climate change. Often sidestepping specifics, Buttigieg hinted at a broad climate-centric role for the department that will require significant investments, on top of Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan.
“We need to build our economy back, better than ever, and the Department of Transportation can play a central role in this,” the 39-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told the Senate Commerce Committee.
Buttigieg indicated he would reverse a Trump administration rollback in federal automotive fuel economy standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, work to stiffen oversight of aviation safety as the troubled Boeing 737 Maxreturns to the skies and encourage use of electric vehicles, such as by adding 500,000 charging stations nationwide.
Buttigieg did not specify where money could come from for big investments in infrastructure, and wouldn’t rule out a tax increase. He floated the possibility of a major change in how highways are funded, such as by converting from the current Highway Trust Fund, which is paid for through the gas tax, to a “vehicle miles traveled” alternative that would tax drivers based on their road mileage.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who chaired the hearing Thursday for the last time as the Senate finalized its transfer of power to Democrats, signaled likely challenges in finding ways to pay for a costly infrastructure overhaul, but said he looked forward to working with Buttigieg.
Buttigieg, a former Democratic presidential candidate, would be the first openly gay person confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet post. He was among the first Cabinet selections getting hearings this week as Biden urges the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority, to quickly confirm his nominees.
Buttigieg would take over at a critical time for transportation. The coronavirus pandemic has devastated many modes of transportation, with airlines, city subway systems and Amtrak seeking federal aid to help keep afloat until ridership recovers.
Beyond standard transportation fixes, which are easier to promise than to get through Congress, Biden wants to rejuvenate the post-pandemic economy and create thousands of green jobs by making environmentally friendly retrofits and public works improvements.
Expanding on Biden’s vision, Buttigieg hinted there could be new regulations or legislation governing self-driving cars to boost development, which would transform the industry. Because technology is advancing quickly, he wants to ensure “that we’re acting so that on the policy side, we are ready for all of the things that automated vehicles will bring to our roads and to our economy.”
Buttigieg pointed to his past experience as a veteran of the Afghanistan War as well as a city mayor as valuable in taking a ground-level approach to improving transportation. He described initiating a “smart streets” program to make South Bend’s downtown more pedestrian-and bicyclist-friendly while spurring hundreds of millions of dollars in economic investment.
Buttigieg would not step into the job with extensive experience enacting federal transportation policy, though advocates hope his public stature and loyal following from the 2020 campaign could help push through broad changes long unachievable on Capitol Hill.